Screenwriting : Me again - scene heading formatting by Simon Hartwell

You're take away is correct, if you are still in Lisa's home changing scene from Hallway, to lounge, to bedroom within the same night, then there is no need to keep stating that it's night. If the shots are continuous, meaning she walks from the hallway into the lounge within the same time period, then you would add "CONTINUOUS"

Thanks guys. I think I'm getting there. Just going back over own screenplays. Will look at more scripts too. Then it is on to Pitch Decks.

You can leave INT off if you want to but it is okay either way.

Well, there are no hard and fast rules, but if you're doing a "master slug" for the house, then it wouldn't include "HALLWAY" in it. Instead, you'd have:

INT. LISA'S HOME - NIGHT

Lisa comes home from work and walks into—

HALLWAY

Lisa stops and looks at family pictures on the wall before continuing down the hall and entering—

LISA'S BEDROOM

Lisa kicks her shoes off and dives under the covers of the bed.

INT. LISA'S BEDROOM - DAY

Still in her work clothes, Lisa slowly awakens to a new day.

**************

Another thing I'd say is that you only need to put "LISA'S HOME" in the header the first time you introduce rooms inside the house. After that, you can just put "LISA'S KITCHEN" or "LISA'S BEDROOM." Since bedrooms and kitchens are common, I almost always identify whose it is since there may be JOE'S KITCHEN or TOM'S BEDROOM later in the script.

I also don't put commas in headers the way you have. I think the traditional way is a single or double dash: INT. LISA'S HOME - LISA'S KITCHEN - NIGHT. To me, it makes it easier to read.

These are just my opinions, of course. There are no screenwriting police enforcing any laws. :)

David. They do have to know where to start filming a scene. If she is first seen in the hallway it would be nice to say it in the master scene heading.

It shouldn't be in a master scene heading since all the subsequent locations within the house are not in the hallway. The master heading is LISA'S HOUSE. If the hallway is the first place you see her, then you run into problems using a master heading.

David. That makes sense.

Looking at it again, I see I included INT. on the last one. Probably don't need that and could just have LISA'S BEDROOM - DAY.

I always try for consistency and clarity. I never want a reader to have to stop and think, Wait, what? Where am I?.

100% Just checked a few scripts - INT. LISA's HOME - HALLWAY - NIGHT (dashed not commas)

@David. For sure. That's why I was going long hand all the time originally, but it looks less professional so tightening it up. Pitching through Open Writing Assignments you have to get past the Gate Keepers before it gets to the Production Company so trying to eliminate all reason to stop it - other than the actual story that is.

Good luck with it, Simon!

Thanks. Recently got one passed the Gate Keeps so keeping my fingers crossed.

Hey mate, always put the entire, whole line. The reason is two fold. First, always let the reader/audience know where they are, what they're doing, who they're with. Second, in creating a shooting schedule the program uses the DAY or NIGHT to help sort locations. Without these the program is lost and someone will have to manually input to correct (so someone is doing a writers job when the writer should have done it in the first place).

Often a scene does not take place all in one location. For example if you have a scene that takes place in a restaurant and there are characters at the bar, characters at a table and a character in the bathroom, it is not necessary to make a master heading for each location. You can leave out DAY or NIGHT. It doesn’t matter when doing a schedule because they are just moving from one room to another so they would be shooting these locations all at the same time.

Hope the gate keepers and companies love your scripts, Simon Hartwell! Keep us posted.